I have not always agreed with what the Minister said but I wish him a very happy, prosperous and peaceful retirement. He has served this State selflessly and with a great deal of conviction. Some of that may have been misguided but it was always genuine. I wish him well.
People in the Oireachtas are not always aware of what is going on in local areas and the powerlessness felt by local people. Wicklow County Council has twice voted against the opening of a dump in the Ballinagran/Coolbeg area but that does not seem to make any difference. If elected councillors had any say they could decide where a dump was placed. Despite the fact that Wicklow County Council has twice expressed its clear wishes that this dump should not be put in the Ballinagran/Poolbeg area, it appears to have gone through all the statutory procedures. It is now before the Minister with a firm proposal from the county council officials, despite the democratic wishes of the councillors that the dump should not be placed there.
The reason for this is clear. As regards dumps, halting sites and unpopular placing of people or artificial structures, it is almost inevitable that council officials go for the point of least resistance — the area with the smallest population because that is where they will get the least trouble. They come to the conclusion that a dump or halting site should go where they will not have as many demonstrations as somewhere else. Every week at Wicklow County Council there is a picket outside by those affected by the dump. It is not a big picket. It is a crowd of people committed to opposition to this dump because it threatens their livelihoods and families but above all an area which is one of the most beautiful in County Wicklow. It is a beautiful agricultural valley.
The Minister knows that one can get an environmental impact statement to say what one wants, depending on the terms of reference which one gives it. One can get an EIS to decide somewhere is the best location. I am not suggesting that this has necessarily been done in this case. There are many other locations in County Wicklow which have not been properly considered.
This decision has been reached with indecent haste. I spoke to the county council today who told me that the dump in Avoca is virtually full up and so this one is more urgent. That does not mean this is the right decision. It means they need a dump badly. The reality is that this is the wrong decision which has been reached in haste because they need somewhere for refuse.
This EIS has been before the Minister for a long time. My guess is that the Minister will not make a decision on this matter this side of the election. He knows well that one makes popular decisions in election year and puts off unpopular ones. Whatever Government comes into power — I hope, with the greatest respect, that the Minister's party is not in that Government — will then make a decision after it has been elected. We are waiting for the off, and after the off a decision will be made on Ballinagran.
The Minister should know we are talking about people's livelihoods, future, children and a beautiful part of County Wicklow. This is not an issue on which politics should be played. This EIS has been sitting in front of the Minister for months. Yet he is unable to make a decision and is paralysed. It must be the easiest decision in the world. The Minister for the Environment passes this location on his way home every week when he goes through Arklow on his way to Wexford. He could drop in and see how unsuitable the location is.
We need a decision in the interests of the people who live in Ballinagran/Poolbeg, not a delay in the interests of the politicians in Leinster House. That is cruel, unfair, merciless and highly political. The size of this proposed dump astounds me. It is not just a 50 acre dump in a verdant valley but 300 acres — a buffer zone of 250 acres and 50 acres of dump. It is 300 acres of destruction. It is no coincidence that those brave people who fought against this at local and national level and in the Supreme Court have spent a great deal of their valuable time in Brussels, lobbying MEPs and the Commission about the way the Irish Government is behaving in a political way when their livelihood and future is at stake.
